EFI variables are not supported

25 March 2025, 00:07:39

I am trying to install artix as guest OS from a proxmox vm but unfortunately I fail at setting up grub.
What I did:
- set up a vm in proxmox with the ISO from artix download page (20250310) attached
- boot up the vm
- logging in the live system as root
cfdisk /dev/sda
set up 512M type EFI System as first partition
set up 8G type linux swap as second partition
set up the rest type linux filesystem as third partition
mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sda1
mkfs.ext -L ROOT /dev/sda3
mkswap -L SWAP /dev/sda2
mount /dev/sda3 /mnt
mkdir -p /mnt/boot/efi
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot/efi
swapon /dev/sda2
basestrap /mnt base base-devel openrc elogind-openrc
basestrap /mnt linux linux-firmware
fstabgen -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
artix-chroot /mnt
pacman -S grub efibootmgr
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi --bootloader-id=grub

and here it fails with the message:

installing for x86_64-efi platform...
EFI variables are not supported on this system.
EFI variables are not supported on this system.
grub-install: error: efibootmgr failed to register the boot entry: no such file or directory.

if I reboot now, no bootable is found and artix won't come up.
I've found this form post (https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/91620/efi-variables-are-not-supported-on-this-system) to this issue and tried it, but neither in the live image nor in the installed system the directory /sys/firmware contained an efi directory, so....
Any hints on how to solve this are highly appreciated

Re: EFI variables are not supported

Reply #1 – 25 March 2025, 01:17:58

I don't know about proxmox but with libvirt you need a package (edk2-ovmf) with the UEFI firmware to have a UEFI VM.
Maybe proxmox needs the same or similar ? From your error it being a BIOS VM seems a distinct possibility ?

Re: EFI variables are not supported

Reply #2 – 25 March 2025, 01:45:52

mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot/efi

Don't you need a link or a mount point in fdat

It needs to find the UFI somehow

Re: EFI variables are not supported

Reply #3 – 25 March 2025, 03:27:13

OK. I figured it out. Apparantely proxmox is using SeaBIOS to boot vms => therefore the efi boot did not work as intended. I fuzzed around with the config of the vm and finally got it running (you need to switch the vm to ovmf and then hit esc while the vm is booting up to enter a bioesque menue, where you have to configure the boot options for the iso to work to get into the live system. afterwards you need to remove said option from the same menu and replace it with an option to boot into the installed system from 'disk').
TLDR: I fixed it. Thanks for the hints and ideas here. "OVMF" was the missing keyword in my journey